Management Mythos: Are you being Mahabharat's Bhishma at work?

I am the CEO of a media company serving my last days. A successor has been appointed and I am supposed to help him takeover. It has been an interesting phase. Already people have started ignoring me and sucking up to the new CEO. The board has started reaching out to the new candidate , sometimes keeping me out of the loop. Even the new candidate treats me like a piece of history. I have a mind to take back control and show everyone I am still the boss. I know you will tell me to let go and be a bigger man. I don't agree with that logic. I have put my heart and soul into this company. Why should I let go?

Let us first clarify. Are you the owner of the company or just the professional hired to do the job? If the media company is the yagna, then the yajaman of this company is the board of directors. They have a right to choose who will be their chief priest. In the popular versions of the Mahabharata told in comics and teleserials, Bhisma is presented as a noble figure who takes a vow of celibacy. Flowers are showered on him. Yet, few ponder on why Krishna insists that during the war at Kurukshetra, he be pinned to the ground, suspended between heaven and earth, unable to move his limbs.

In the old Vedic ashrama system, a man is supposed to retire (vanaprasth ashram) once his son has a son of his own, and renounce the world entirely (sanyas ashram) when the grandson has a son of his own. In the retired state he is supposed to eat half of what he ate as the householder (grihasth ashram) and in the renounced state he was supposed to eat whatever the wind brought him. What does this mean? This is essentially a 'talent management system' meant to ensure that the old makes way for the new so that society is always taken care of and there is not too much burden on the resources of nature.

Bhisma goes against this system. He takes advantage of his boon of choosing the time of his death, refuses to die, even after his grand-nephews, the Pandavas and Kauravas, (who are old enough to be his great grand nephews) become old enough to be kings. He may have renounced conjugal pleasures but he refuses to renounce his position, because he believes he is still responsible for the welfare of the family forever. Basically he does not let go and Krishna pins him to the ground, gets him out of the way, so that life can move on. Are you a Bhisma?

You may have given your heart and soul to the company as the hired professional. For that you have been paid, I am sure. Why then do you demand more? It's not about being a bigger man and letting go; it is simply about being a professional. But it's hard to be professional when our source of self-worth comes from the successful organisation. We are identified with the work we do. Hence we cannot let go of the work. When we let go of our work, we let go of our identity and that is terrifying.

The thing you have to realise is: you may not let it go, but it has already let you go.

(The author is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group. He can be reached at devdutt@devdutt.com)